Iraqi Museum Buys Back Stolen Art

Here's a new one. The Slemani Museum in Sulaimaniya, Kurdistan is paying smugglers to return its own stolen treasures.

Here's a new one. The Slemani Museum in Sulaimaniya, Kurdistan is paying smugglers to return its own stolen treasures. You see, in 2003, some 15,000 artifacts were looted from the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad (pictured right) after U.S. troops failed to secure the area. The space reopened in 2009, but its curatorial team was able to recover only about 6,000 of the original works. So Slemani, in a quest to rebuild, made the controversial decision to buy back some of its hot collection, figuring—well, maybe thieves are open to negotiation?

Turns out, some are. And it's not as steep as you might imagine. Robbers asked for a piddling $600 for one ancient Sumerian text—a small price to pay considering it's one of the world's first doctrines on democracy. But critics (UNESCO among them) say this sets a bad precedent, and that negotiating with crooks will only lead to more looting. Museum and gubernatorial officials, however, believe this may be their only hope for recovery.

What do you think? Would you ever refuse to visit a museum because you knew a portion of its collection was obtained by making plea bargains with criminals?